It appeared Nathan Tinkler was beaten in his bid for Australian Pacific Coal (AQC) and its Dartbrook coal mine, but the ex-billionaire has risen again, raising his offer to $1 per share.
Tinkler is represented by Pacific Premium Coal (PPC) on this occasion, rather than Nakevo, and the renewed proposal comes with several pre-conditions.
This includes that Australian Pacific Coal enter into an agreement with Trepang Services, AQC’s largest shareholder, to convert the debt owed by AQC to Trepang into a direct 40 per cent interest in Dartbrook for Pacific Premium Coal.
“Should such an agreement not be forthcoming from Trepang, then PPC would repay all outstanding debts to the Trepang parties (no detail has been provided as to how this would occur),” Australian Pacific Coal said in a statement.
On Thursday, Australian Pacific Coal had requested urgent advice from Trepang as to whether Trepang would support Pacific Premium Coal’s bid, with Trepang advising that it was seeking advice regarding the renewed proposal.
Late last week, Australian Pacific Coal had entered into a non-binding 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Matt Latimore-backed M Resources, with the two companies to share in the operation of Dartbrook.
The JV would also involve future mine management services such as marketing, logistics and technical services.
Prior to the M Resources agreement, Trepang Services was the frontrunner in the transaction – where an imminent AQC shareholder meeting was set to approve its proposal – but the company pulled out at the last minute.
Trepang terminated its offer because Australian Pacific Coal did not receive shareholder approval for the Trepang proposal by August 23.
Before that, Tinkler-backed Nakevo had proposed to provide immediate funding to Australian Pacific Coal through a 20 per cent equity subscription priced at $0.30 per share.
In a similar fashion to the renewed offer from Pacific Premium Coal, Nakevo said it would rectify debt Australian Pacific Coal owed to Trepang Services and its business associates.
Australian Pacific Coal also launched a $100 million entitlement offer priced at $0.34 per share last week, representing a 6.8 per cent discount to AQC’s closing share price on August 26.
The coal miner will use the proceeds to fully repay its debt to Trepang Services and for general working capital purposes.
The entitlement offer is scheduled to open on September 9 and close on September 20.